{!m;1JMJ~ ~ ··:
: What were the effects of the :
; women's rights movement of :
: the middle to late 1800s? •
·.... ........ .. ..... .. .
Reading Guide
Content Vocabulary
suffrage
(p. 43s)
coeducation
(p. 437)
Academic Vocabulary
capable (p. 437)
ministry (p. 438)
Key People and Events
Lucretia Mott (p. 435)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (p. 435)
Susan B. Anthony (p. 437)
catherine Beecher (p. 437)
Emma Hart Willard (p. 437)
Mary Lyon (p. 438)
Elizabeth Blackwell (p. 438)
Reading Strategy
Taking Notes As you read, use
a diagram like the one below to
identify the contributions these
individuals made to women's rights.
Individual
ILu~~~ia ~
Contribution
I
Elizabeth
Cady
Stanton
I
Susan B.
. Anthony
~~
I
r/IL.~==~·'
The Womens
'
Move e t
American Diary
When Lucy Stone attended collegeJ she
faced many challenges. Her daughter, Alice
Stone Blackwell, recalledJ 'Jtit the low wages
then paid to women it took Lucy nine years
to save up money enough to enter college.JJ
Stone attended Oberlin College in OhioJ
which was the f irst college in the United
States to admit women. Stone graduated
from Oberlin in 1847 and became a strong
supporter of wonzenJs rights.
-from Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights
Women and Reform
I¢1Ffitjlnt¥1
Women organized to win equal rights.
History and You Can you imagine a time when
women were not allowed to vote and had limited
access to education and jobs? Read to learn how
women worked to change their status in America.
M any women abolitionists also worked for
women's rights. Like many of the women
reformers, Lucretia Mott was a Quaker.
Quaker women enjoyed a certain amount of
equality in their own communities. Mott
helped fugitive enslaved workers and organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery
Society. At the world antislavery convention
in London, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. There, they joined forces to work for
women's rights.
The Seneca Falls Convention
In July 1848, Stanton, Mott, and other
women organized the first women's rights
convention in Seneca Falls, New York. About
200 women and 40 men attended.
The convention issued a Declaration of
Sentiments and Resolutions. The declaration
called for an end to laws that discriminated
against women. It also demanded that women
be allowed to enter the all-male world of
trades, professions, and businesses. The most
controversial issue at the Seneca Falls Convention, however, was about suffrage, or the
right to vote.
Elizabeth Stanton insisted that the declaration include a demand for woman suffrage.
The delegates, however, thought the idea of
women voting was too radical. Lucretia Mott
told her friend, "Lizzie, thee will make us
ridiculous." Standing with Stanton, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass argued powerfully for women's right to vote. After a
heated debate, the convention voted to
include the demand for woman suffrage in
the United States.
Growth of the Women's Movement
The Seneca Falls Convention paved the
way for the growth of the women's rights
movement. During the 1800s women held
several national conventions, including the
first national women's rights convention, in
Worcester, Massachusetts. A number of
reformers, both male and female, joined the
growing movement.
l ime Line
Women's Rights
Struggling for Equality Women who fought to end slavery also
began to argue for their own rights and an equal place in society.
1833 Oberlin College
T
admits women and
African Americans
establishes Mount
Holyoke Female
Seminary
1844 Female textile
workers in Massachusetts
form labor association
rights convention held
in Seneca Falls, New York
Speculating Why do you think the Declaration of Independence is often referred
to by people struggling to gain rights?
Primary Source
The Seneca Falls Declaration
The first women's rights convention adopted resolutions proclaiming women's equality and calling for women's right to vote,
to speak publicly, and to run for office. Before the meeting, the
women published a "Declaration of Sentiments" in the local
newspaper to state their goals.
~
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
women are created egual; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ....
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations on the part of man toward woman,
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a
candid world ....
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of onehalf the people of this country, their social and religious
degradation-in view of the unjust laws above mentioned,
and because women do feel themselves aggrieved,
oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred
rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all
the rights and pri ileg which b long to th m as citizens
of the United State .
VocABULARY
hitherto (HIH · thuhr ·TOO): before
endowed (ihn · DAU • ehd): provided
inalienable (ih · NAYL ·yuh· nuh · buhl):
impossible to surrender
usurpations (voo · suhr · PAY· shuhnz):
wrongful seizures of power
disfranchisement (DIHS ·FRAN· CHYZ •
muhnt): deprivation of rights, especially the
right to vote
degradation (DEH • gruh ·DAY· shuhn):
lowering in status
436
Chapter 14
The Age of Reform
Critical Thinking
1. Drawing Conclusions Why did the authors of this document
use the Declaration of Independence as a model?
2. Speculating How do you think the authors would have
responded to critics who ridiculed them as being too bold?
3. Making Inferences How did this document, along with the
women's convention, help women acquire more rights?
Maria Mitchell
Mary Lyon
First professional woman astronomer
Founder of
Mount Holyoke
Mitchell was educated by her father and became
fascinated with astronomy. She
discovered the orbit of a
new comet in 1847, and her
accomplishments became
widely known. Mitchell
accepted a position at Vassar
College when it opened in
1865. She wrote, "It seems to me
that the needle is the chain of
woman . ... Emancipate her
from the 'stitch, stitch, stitch,'
... and she would have time
for studies which would
engross as the needle
never can."
Susan B. Anthony was the daughter of a
Quaker abolitionist in New York. Anthony
worked for women's rights and temperance.
She called for equal pay for women, college
training for girls, and coeducation-the
teaching of males and females together.
Anthony organized the country's first women's temperance association, the Daughters of
Temperance.
Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a
temperance meeting in 1851. They became
lifelong friends and partners in the struggle
for women's rights and suffrage. For the rest
of the century, Anthony and Stanton led the
women's movement. They worked with other
women to win the right to vote. Beginning
with Wyoming in 1890, several states granted
women suffrage. It would not be until 1920,
however, that women would gain the right to
vote throughout the United States.
Readfng Check
Explaining What is suffrage?
After working as a
teacher for 20 years, Lyon began raising funds for
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1834. She became
the school's first principal when it opened in 1837. Lyon
wrote that women should be educated in order to
"promote human happiness. To advance everything
excellent. ... Promote the best interests of this life &
that which is to come . ... The great secret of the whole
in some respects is female education."
1. Analyzing What beliefs did Maria Mitchell and
Mary Lyon share?
2. Identifying What did Mitchell mean by the phrase
"the needle is the chain of woman"?
Progress by Women
1\llt'hiGi¥1 Women made progress in achieving
equality in education, marriage laws, and professional
employment.
History and You Are there some laws that you
consider unfair or unjust? Read to learn how some
women worked to change laws and social customs
that they thought were unjust.
.... ............................ .. ...
P ioneers in women's education began to
call for more opportunity. Early champions
such as Catherine Beecher and Emma Hart
Willard believed that women should be educated for their traditional roles in life. They
also thought that women could be capable, or
skillful, teachers. The Milwaukee College for
Women created courses based on Beecher's
ideas "to train women to be healthful, intelligent, and successful wives, mothers, and
housekeepers."
The Age of Reform Chapter 14
437
Education
Some young women began to make their
own opportunities. They broke the barriers to
female education and helped other women
do the same.
After her marriage, Emma Willard educated
herself in subjects considered suitable only for
males, such as science and mathematics. In 1821
Willard set up the Troy Female Seminary in
upstate New York. Willard's seminary taught
mathematics, history, geography, and physics,
as well as the usual homemaking subjects.
Mary Lyon established Mount Holyoke
Female Seminary in Massachusetts in 1837.
She modeled its curriculum on that of nearby
Amherst College.
Marriage and Family Laws
During the mid to late 1800s, women made
some gains in marriage and property laws.
New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin,
Mississippi, and the new state of California
recognized the right of women to own property after their marriage.
Some states passed laws permitting
divorced women to share the guardianship of
their children with their husbands. Indiana
Vocabulary
1. Write a short paragraph about
the women's movement of the
middle to late 1800s that uses
the following terms correctly:
Main Ideas
2. Listing What opportunities were
reserved for males in the middle
to late 1800s?
3. Explaining Describe the rights
within marriage that women
gained in the 1800s.
438
Chapter 14
The Age of Reform
was the first of several states that allowed
women to seek divorce if their husbands
were chronic abusers of alcohol.
Breaking Barriers
In the 1800s, women had few career choices.
They could become elementary teachers, but
school boards often paid lower salaries to
women than to men. Employment in professions that were dominated by men, such as
medicine and the ministry, or Christian service, was even more difficult. Some strongminded women, however, succeeded.
For example, Elizabeth Blackwell's medical school application was turned down
repeatedly. Finally accepted by Geneva College in New York, Blackwell graduated first
in her class and achieved fame as a doctor.
Despite the accomplishments of notable
women, and their gains in education, state
laws, and employment opportunities, women
remained limited by social customs and
expectations. Women had just begun the long
struggle to achieve their goal of equality.
Reading Chetk Identifying What gains were
made by women in the field of education?
Critical Thinking
4. Making Connections Many
reformers in the 1800s focused
on abolition and woman suffrage. Use a diagram like the
one below to help you consider
ways in which the two movements were similar.
Suffrage
movement
Abolitionist
movement
5. Expository Writing What arguments might have been used by
women who supported suffrage?
You are a female pioneer traveling
west. Write a paragraph explaining
why women should have the right
to vote.
6.
What were the effects of the
women's rights movement of
the middle to late 1800s?
• Temperance movement
• Expansion of higher education
• Education targeting the blind and deaf
• Improving prison conditions
Methodist
camp meeting
~
Abolitionist and reformer
Frederick Douglass T
~
Founded African colony for formerly
enslaved people
• Published antislavery newspapers
and books
• Established antislavery
societies
~
How did Southerners
defend slavery?
Meeting notice,
Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery
Society
• Spoke publicly against slavery
• Created Underground Railroad
to help enslaved people escape
to freedom
.....
• Claimed slavery was essential to
Southern economy
• Argued that enslaved workers were
treated well
• Argued that system of slavery provided
for needs of workers
=;;:-:---=--- :..._,
What were the goals of
the women's movement?
:=_"-
II
·,....,.-
• Access to all-male professions
• Woman suffrage (the right to vote)
• Equal pay for women
• Higher education for women
• Right to own property
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony,
leaders in the woman
suffrage movement ~
~
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The Age of Reform Chapter 14
439